


UST in the Library

by hopelocklet



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Love Bites, M/M, Pining, Protectiveness, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 20:54:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14363469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopelocklet/pseuds/hopelocklet
Summary: After Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter reveal to their best friends that they have confusing feelings for each other, their friends respond in different ways. Hermione nearly explodes in fury, outraged to think that maybe Draco is using Harry. Pansy, on the other hand, pushes the two boys towards each other, and even pushes herself toward a certain bushy-haired Gryffindor.





	1. UST in the library

**Author's Note:**

> I know I overused parentheses in this, but I wrote it in, like, one hour, so it is what it is.

“Pans? Can you, uh, help me with something?” Draco asked, pulling Pansy’s focus from the _Witch Weekly_ she was reading.

Pansy looked up at Draco from her place on the common room sofa and smiled mischievously. The boy was rubbing the back of his neck and looking at the floor, altogether appearing quite nervous.

“What do you look so scared for?” Pansy said, hoping something embarrassing had happened to Draco so that she could use it to make him stop teasing her about how she’d spilled frog guts all over herself in Potions the week prior.

“I’m not scared!” Draco squawked indignantly. (Draco would wring Pansy’s neck if she told him that his voice sounded like a squawk, but whatever, it was true.)

“Fine. Not scared, flustered maybe. Did you run into Potter in the loo and get a boner from seeing his dick or something?”

“What? No. You’re crazy. And if I had a boner, why would I come to _you_ for help?”  
“Fair point.” Pansy shut her magazine and sat up, now ready to fully invest herself in the situation. “Well, if it’s not a Potter thing, then what is it?”  
Draco looked up at the ceiling and mumbled something.

“Sorry, what was that?”

Draco met Pansy’s questioning gaze, hesitancy and guilt in his eyes. “I never said it wasn’t a Potter thing.”

Pansy gasped. “What happened? Give me details! Was it a fight?” She pulled Draco next to her on the sofa as she bombarded him with questions.

Draco ran a hand through his hair (he never did that, too afraid of messing up the hour’s worth of work he put into his hairstyle in the morning), a sure sign that he was overwhelmed. “It wasn’t a fight. It was- Well, what happened was- I didn’t think- I mean, I could never have predicted-”

“Merlin’s fucking tits, Draco! Would you just spit it out?”

Draco sighed. “Potter and I had sex,” he admitted in a low whisper.

“What?!” Pansy practically screamed, causing the other few students left in the Slytherin common room that late at night to turn their heads toward Draco and Pansy. Draco immediately covered Pansy’s mouth with his hand and glared at her.

“Be quiet,” Draco stressed. Pansy bit him to make him pull his hand back. “Ouch,” Draco said, but Pansy couldn’t care less about his pain.

“You did what with Potter?” Pansy hissed at Draco. She grabbed his arm, french manicured nails digging into his flesh.

Draco glared at Pansy again, but he seemed relieved that at least she was being quiet now. “Calm down. It’s not like he fucked me or anything, we just, you know, got each other off.”

Pansy’s hold on Draco’s arm loosened, and he used the opportunity to pull his arm away from her. Pansy wasn’t fazed by the action though, she was too busy being shocked. “Did you give him a blowie?”

Draco winced at Pansy’s crassness, but he nodded reluctantly.

Pansy’s jaw dropped. “You mean to tell me that your mouth was on the Savior of the Wizarding World’s dick?”

“ _Pansy_ ,” Draco seethed.

“What?” Pansy said. “You can’t just drop a bombshell on me like, “Hey, just FYI, I sucked Harry Potter’s dick,” and expect me to not need a minute to process it.”

“Fine. Take a minute then.” Draco crossed his arms and looked around at the rest of the common room while he let Pansy process. He caught sight of the only three other students left in the common room at a table near the windows looking out into the Black Lake. When he realized the students were pointing at him and Pansy and whispering amongst fits of giggles (must be sodding third years, giggling like that), he gave them his most condemnatory death glare. The students quickly stopped their whispering, packed up their things, and rushed up to the dorms.

“Done?” Draco then asked, suddenly wishing to go back to his own dorm and fall asleep to the memory of running his hands through Harry Potter’s hair (Draco had discovered that Harry’s hair was unfairly soft, despite how obnoxious and tangled it appeared, and he never wanted to forget the feeling of burying his fingers into those curls.)

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I suppose. Just, this is- Draco, this is big. You’ve been wanting Potter for how long now- four years? I mean, how do you feel? Are you okay?” Pansy’s hand was back on his arm, this time in a comforting way.

Draco breathed in and out deeply. How did he feel? He felt amazing. But also confused. And scared. But then, thinking of Harry’s lips against his own, he felt safe, happy, content. Basically, he was feeling a whole lot, and he didn’t know how to express it. “I’m okay, yeah,” Draco told Pansy, giving her a small smile. “I mean, I’m bloody terrified since I don’t know what this means, but. I’m good. He was just…” Draco laughed a little, caught up in his memories of the night. ”…perfect, and I know I’m not even close to being good enough for him, but maybe this could be the start of something. Maybe? I don’t know. Do you think it could?”

Pansy smiled warmly at Draco. “Oh, Drakey-kins, of course you’re good enough for him. Don’t ever think that you’re not, okay?” Pansy paused in the middle of her pep talk to cup Draco’s face in her hands and make him look her in the eye. “Hey, I mean it. You’re amazing. Harry Potter may be the Wizarding World’s Golden Boy, but if he passes up an opportunity to be with you, then all he really is is a damn fool.”

Draco laughed and swatted Pansy’s hands away. “Yeah, I know you think that, but you’ve been my best friend since I was twelve. What do you think Harry wants, though? Do you honestly believe that we could be something? Or am I just being stupid, thinking that a couple of blowjobs meant more than it really did?”

“Hey, it’s not just a couple blowjobs though, is it? You two have been talking more, and you got all that nasty war stuff out of the way, yeah? I definitely think there’s a possibility that right now in Gryffindor Tower Harry Potter is sat down with the Weasel and Granger, asking them the same stuff you’re asking me.”

“I don’t-” Draco started to say, but he was interrupted by Pansy’s godawful impression of Harry.

Pansy made her voice deep and husky and put her fingers in the shape of circles in front of her eyes, mocking Harry’s glasses. “Ron, Hermione, please, you’ve got to help me,” Pansy said in the deep voice. Draco snorted and shook his head. “I don’t know what to do about my feelings for Draco. He might be out of my league. I mean, he’s so fit and blond and he sucks dick like Victor Krum.”

Draco laughed. “The fuck, Pansy? How would Harry know how Krum sucks dick?”

“I told you in fourth year that I thought Granger was just Krum’s beard.”

Draco slapped Pansy lightly, looking a bit outraged. “Yeah, but you never said that you thought he was shagging Harry instead.”

“Just because I knew your jealous arse would feed me to the Giant Squid if I did.”

Draco laughed again, and Pansy joined in, immensely pleased that she’d gotten her best friend out of his mood and into a happy state. “Shut up,” Draco said. “I can still feed you to the Giant Squid, by the way.”

“You can try,” Pansy corrected him.

Draco shrugged. After a quiet pause, he asked, “Um, now that you know about the thing with Harry, can you help me?”  
“I thought me helping you was giving advice. You need something else? Merlin, you’re getting greedy now that you’re a superstar’s boyfriend.”

“No, I just need that concealer makeup you have. You know, for my neck.” To demonstrate what he meant, Draco pulled down the collar of his robes, revealing a series of love bites on his neck. Pansy gasped. “I suppose I could use glamour charms or just wear robes, but glamours are hard to keep on for long periods of time, and I don’t feel like wearing robes all the time, they make me look like my father.”

“Holy shit, Draco. Potter really went at it.” Pansy stared at the marks on Draco’s neck in awe.

“Yeah, well,” Draco said, pulling his collar back up and blushing. “Anyways, I know you have that makeup, so can I use it?”  
“Yeah, sure,” Pansy said, eyeing Draco skeptically. “Why don’t you just heal them, though?”

“Oh.” Draco blushed again. “Because I want to keep them.” Pansy raised an eyebrow at that, to which Draco responded defensively with, “It’s not weird. It’s just a reminder.”

“A reminder,” Pansy repeated, and Draco nodded. “Whatever you say,” Pansy said, still sounding weirded out. “I’ll go get the concealer and bring it back here, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks, Pansy.” Draco sounded genuinely grateful, so Pansy smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek before getting up to go fetch the makeup.

“You're welcome, babe,” Pansy told him.

The next day, Pansy was once again disrupted in her reading by a certain blond Slytherin. This time, however, she was reading _Sub-Aquatic Botanical Mysteries_ for Herbology, so the disruption was quite welcome. Draco slid into the seat across from Pansy at her table in the library and cleared his throat to catch her attention.

Pansy grinned upon noticing Draco, glad to have an excuse to drop her textbook on the table. “Well if it isn’t Draco Lucius Malfoy, the great slut of the Slytherin house. To what do I owe this great honor?”

Draco kicked Pansy under the table for the slut comment, then turned his neck toward her for inspection. “Can you see them at all?”

“By ‘them’ you mean the love bites that Harry Potter gave you, correct?” Draco kicked Pansy again, and Pansy smirked. “No, you can’t see them at all,” Pansy assured him.

Draco nodded, satisfied, and looked down at the book Pansy had set down. “Oh, I was just reading this a few weeks ago! It’s actually rather interesting, the way Marinus analyzes botany’s relationship with magical creatures and potions.”

Pansy rolled her eyes as Draco delved into an academic rant that was much too Ravenclaw for her. She boredly looked around at the other students milling about in the library, and when she saw Harry Potter searching for a table to sit at, she grinned wickedly.

“Oi, Potter!” Pansy called. Draco’s head instantly snapped up. He looked first to Pansy, and seeing where her gaze was focused, he turned to see that Pansy was indeed talking to Harry Potter. Draco kicked Pansy, three times harder than he had before, but Pansy ignored him and kept waving Harry toward their table. Harry, for his part, seemed greatly confused. He looked back and forth between Pansy and Draco about a million times before hesitantly walking over to join them.

“Come and sit with us,” Pansy said, speaking to Harry in an overly sweet way that he was unfamiliar with. “There’s a free seat right next to Draco.”

Harry immediately looked at Draco, who slid down in his chair as far as he possibly he could while his face slowly pinkened.

“Is it okay if I sit here?” Harry asked Draco. His voice was a bit hoarse. Pansy could guess why. She smiled devilishly at Draco.

“‘S fine,” Draco said, his own voice coming out as more of a squeak. Harry nodded, and with one last apprehensive glance at Pansy, he sat down next to Draco.

For one unbearably awkward moment, no one said anything. Pansy quickly changed that.

“So, Potter, what brings you to the library today?” Pansy asked chipperly. She smartly moved her legs out of the way before Draco could kick her.

“I’m, um-” Harry paused to clear his throat in an effort to sound less hoarse. “I just needed to work on my Potions essay.” As if trying to prove that he was telling the truth, Harry pulled a quill and parchment out of his book bag. Harry slid his fingers across the parchment, trying to smooth it down, and Draco watched his hands move.

“Brilliant!” Pansy exclaimed. Draco tore his gaze from Harry’s mesmerizing fingers just to glare at her. “Draco should be able to help you with that. He finished his own essay three days ago.”

Harry looked to Draco for confirmation and Draco shrugged. “I found the subject matter interesting,” Draco explained. “I’m not, like, a Potions nerd or anything.”

Pansy snorted. “Sure you’re not.”

Draco gave her another one of his infamous glares, and Pansy decided to back down. “Pansy doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Draco told Harry.

Harry smiled. “Well, when it comes to Potions, neither do I. Can you tell me what the bloody fuck a Bubolump is?”

Draco smiled in amusement (or secret fondness) at Harry. “Bubolump is a type of salve. It’s made up of Bubotuber pus and Snarfalump seedlings.”

“Why’d they give it such a shitty name? Herbologists are terrible at naming. They should never have kids.” Draco was smiling in that amused way again, making Harry ask, “What?”

“Herbalists, not herbologists. And, I mean, they could have named the salve Snarfatuber, but I don’t think that’s much better.”

“I don’t know, I’d say Snarfatuber is an improvement. Isn’t that the name of Slytherin’s founder?”

Draco let out an embarrassingly loud laugh. “Snarfatuber Slytherin.”

Harry smiled widely, crinkles around his eyes and all, pleased that he’d made the other boy laugh. “Sorry, am I wrong?”

“No,” Draco said. “But I think your house’s founder has an even lovelier name.”

“Hm? And what’s that?” (Harry’s smile now also looked immensely fond.)

“Gurdyroot Gryffindor.”

Pansy watched as the two boys laughed at each other’s stupid jokes and shook her head. They had both fallen arse over tit for each other. Anyone who couldn’t see it must be blind. (Or at least in need of glasses. Like Harry.)

“I’ve just remembered that I need a book about Unicorns,” Pansy announced to Draco and Harry. Neither seemed to care that she was leaving- a good sign.

Pansy wandered aimlessly among the shelves of books, absentmindedly wondering what she’d wear to Draco and Harry’s wedding. She’d been doing this for only a few minutes when a walking mess of curls interrupted her daydreaming with a sharp, “Parkinson, what is the meaning of this?”

Pansy turned to the face the voice and realized that the bush of hair that had suddenly entered her personal bubble belonged to a person, and that person was Hermione Granger.  
“Sorry?” Pansy said, genuinely confused. She subconsciously took a few steps backward. She had heard the story of Granger punching Draco in third year, and she did not want to be close to this girl when she was in a confrontational mood.

“Harry and Malfoy. Sitting together.”

“Yes?” Pansy said, still not getting it.

“What’re they doing?”

Pansy shrugged. “I don’t know. Bonding?” she suggested, and Granger raised her eyebrows.

“Bonding,” Granger repeated in disbelief.

Pansy wasn’t sure what Granger was so upset about. “You know, like you do when you like someone. I think they’re working their way up to a date.”

Granger looked truly infuriated hearing that. Pansy took another step back. “Is this some kind of sick joke?” Granger demanded to know.

“Is _what_ some kind of sick joke?” Pansy asked, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

“Don’t play dumb. You know what I mean. You and Malfoy.” Granger crossed her arms defiantly.

“Honestly, Granger, what the fuck are you on? I thought you of all people would know that cocaine is banned at Hogwarts.”

“Come on, Parkinson. I know what you’re doing. Trying to get Harry to trust Malfoy, go out with him, shag him, only so that Draco can go and spill all Harry’s secrets to the Prophet.”

 _Aha._ That explained it. Well then. Pansy crossed her arms, mirroring Granger’s earlier action, and glared at her like she was the frog guts from Potions class. “You think Draco is-”

“Fake? A poser? A liar? Manipulative? An all-around deplorable human being? Yes, to all of the above.”

Pansy ground her teeth together. “You honestly believe Draco, my Draco Malfoy, would have sex with Harry just to get close to him and learn all of his dirty little secrets? Which, by the way, I’m sure he has plenty of, being the boring poster boy for the ‘side of the light’.” Pansy made sure to stress the sarcasm on the word ‘plenty’.

Granger didn’t seem at all bothered by Pansy’s comment. She simply cocked her hip and said challengingly, “Are you saying I’m wrong?”

“Completely.” Pansy, having had enough of this argument, stormed off to another bookshelf. Just her luck that Granger would follow.

“What exactly is Malfoy doing with Harry then?” Granger asked, the tone of her voice implying that she thought Pansy wouldn’t have a good answer.

“From what I can tell? Sucking him off in broom closets and writing poetry about him in his diary,” Pansy said matter-of-factly. She didn’t deign to look at Granger as she spoke, instead pretending to be very interested in the book titles of biographies of Merlin. Hang on. Pansy might actually be interested in one of them, titled _Merlin GAY?! The TRUTH about King Arthur and his Wizard Friend_. Pansy was about to pluck the book from the shelf when Granger snapped at her again.

“What are you talking about?”

Pansy sighed, deciding to let the book be. “Draco’s diary. It’s pink with flowers on it. It’s kind of overtly gay, even for Draco.”

“Poetry? You expect me to believe that a Death Eater-”  
“Former,” Pansy felt the need to cut in.

“Is writing poetry for Harry Potter,” Granger finished. It was clear that she was not impressed with Pansy’s explanation one bit.

“‘Course he is. Has been since second year. He’s not all that good at, admittedly. I mean, ‘eyes as green as a fresh pickled toad’? Not exactly Shakespeare. But hey, at least he tries.”

Granger rolled her eyes, feeling that Pansy was barely even trying with her lies now. “Come on. Malfoy did _not_ write that.”

“Pink, flowery diary would disagree with you,” Pansy singsonged, pleased to be getting on Granger’s nerves. She turned back to the bookshelf and again feigned interest at book titles.

“Everyone knows Ginny wrote that.” Granger leaned against the bookshelf and stared Pansy down in what was probably supposed to be an intimidating way.

“Did she tell you that?” Pansy questioned, smiling when Granger had to pause and consider it.

“Well, no,” Granger admitted. “But I’m sure she was just lying. It was embarrassing, after all.”

“Everything Draco does is at least a little embarrassing.”

“Or maybe everything he does is at least a little twisted.”

“Right. Because we all know that all Slytherins do is play mind games,” Pansy said dryly, growing bored of Granger’s rhetoric.

Granger narrowed her eyes at Pansy. “Seriously, Parkinson. This is the last time I’m going to ask you this. What is Malfoy doing with Harry?”

Pansy sighed and copied Granger’s stance, leaning against the bookshelf. “I told you. He’s giving him blowies and pining for him like a total lame arse. That’s all I know. Cross my heart, hope to die.”

Granger kept looking at Pansy in that skeptical way of hers, but she didn’t argue with Pansy’s words. “I don’t get it. Why would Malfoy develop feelings for Harry of all people?”

Pansy smirked and stepped closer to Granger, letting Granger’s bush of hair enter her personal space once again and abandoning any fear she had that Granger might deck her. “What can I say, Granger? Sometimes opposites attract.” Pansy let her gaze linger on Granger’s lips as she spoke, and because of their close proximity Pansy could hear Granger’s breath hitch.   

“That doesn’t make sense,” Granger said, but she didn’t back away from Pansy.

“It doesn’t have to make sense.” Pansy leaned in closer to Granger, enjoying the way Granger’s eyes dilated as she glanced at Pansy’s lips. “I mean, I’m attracted to you even though that doesn’t make sense.”

Granger frowned slightly. “You’re attracted to me?”

“Yes. And who knows? If you ever get over your fear of Slytherins, maybe we can have some fun in broom closets of our own.”

“That’s- I’m-” As Granger stumbled over her words, Pansy smirked and grabbed a random book of the shelf, not bothering to even see what it was.

“Well, I’ve got my book,” Pansy said. “I’d best be going now.” And with that, Pansy sashayed away, leaving a confused and mildly turned on Hermione Granger in her wake.

 


	2. Chapter 2

When Pansy returned to the table, she found that Harry and Draco had left. She sighed exaggeratedly as she started to collect her things, still spread out on the table. 

“I do so much for him, honestly, and this is the thanks I get?” Pansy whined. As she grabbed for her textbook, she noticed a note attached to it. Pansy smiled and shook her head fondly when she read: ‘Sorry, Pans. Harry wants to go flying. With me. I don’t want to abandon you, but I know you’ll understand. Keep me in your prayers- I’m deathly afraid I’ll fall off my broom while staring at his biceps or something.’ She stuffed the book into her book bag and only then did she look at the book she’d randomly plucked off the shelf earlier. And well, wasn’t that ironic? The book was  _ How to Tame Lions _ , presumably an instruction book that would reveal to Pansy how to do just that. Perfect timing, really, considering Pansy was on her way to taming a lion named Hermione Granger.  _ “Or maybe,”  _ Pansy considered as she packed that book into her bag along with the rest of her things,  _ “I shouldn’t tame Granger. I might like her more when she’s wild.” _ Pansy smirked at this thought and left the library feeling delightfully devious.

After hours upon hours of taking notes on Herbology, Pansy’s devilish spark had greatly diminished, and she was instead feeling rather exhausted. It was nearly eleven at night when she heard a knock on her dorm room door. Pansy groaned, too tired to even think about getting up from where she was sitting at her desk and letting whoever it was inside, so she just called out, “Come in!”

She was only slightly surprised when Draco came into the room. He had apparently just gotten out of the shower, based on the look of his hair, and he frowned when he saw the state Pansy was in.    
“You okay?” Draco asked, sounding concerned. He sat on the edge of Pansy’s bed and examined his friend’s drowsy appearance.

“I’m fine. But I’m ninety eight percent sure that Professor Sprout is trying to kill me.”

Draco laughed. “I would pay good money to see Sprout chase you with a machete.”

“Machete? I think a ten thousand page textbook would be more accurate.”

“Ah. Well I’d also pay good money to see that.” Draco was smiling, partly because he was amused, but partly because he was still high off the feeling of Harry’s lips pressed to his forehead, just after they’d gotten each other off in the locker room. Pansy, being the perceptive best friend that she is, noticed that Draco was hiding one of the reasons for his smile.

“Alright,” Pansy said. “Time to fess up. What did you do with Potter today?”

Draco blushed and smiled down at his hands in his lap. “Just stuff,” Draco said shyly. When Pansy gave him a ‘that’s it?’ look, Draco elaborated. “We flew for, like, hours on end. It was kind of amazing. Then we took a walk around the lake and talked for a while. We didn’t want to go to the Great Hall for dinner, so we just ate in the kitchens. And then Harry suggested that we go for another fly, so we did, and after that…” Draco’s cheeks turned impossibly more red. 

“Did you fuck?” Pansy asked impatiently. 

Draco quickly shook his head. “No, we didn’t. But we did other stuff. In the showers in the locker room.”

Pansy raised her eyebrows at Draco. She didn’t seem appalled, just impressed. “Draco, you  _ are  _ the slut of the Slytherin house.”

“No, I’m not!” Draco took a pillow from Pansy’s bed and threw it at her while Pansy cackled. “Seriously, Pans,” Draco said. “It’s not like I’m the first Slytherin to have sex in the locker room.”

“Oh, I know you’re not. But you’re the first to have sex with Harry Potter in the locker room.”

“How is that sluttier than Theo fucking Blaise in the locker room?” Draco crossed his arms and looked at Pansy challengingly, silently daring her to call him a slut again.

“Fine,” Pansy said, her laughs having died down. “I guess you’re right. Theo and Blaise will always be the sluttiest Slytherins.”

“Thank you,” Draco said, appeased. He uncrossed his arms and laid back on Pansy’s bed. As he looked up at the green velvet bed canopy, he thought to himself that the green of Harry’s eyes was much prettier than the green of the bed canopy.

“Stop thinking about Potter,” Pansy told him. She must have seen the dopey smile on his face. Draco winced at the comment, for he didn’t like the fact that his feelings for the other boy were so obvious, even if they were only obvious to Pansy. 

“I can’t,” Draco admitted, and though he couldn’t see Pansy, he could almost feel her roll her eyes. 

“Don’t go Hufflepuff on me now, Malfoy. Not after all this time.”

Draco smiled. “I won’t. It’s just that I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. He makes me feel- I don’t know how to put it- balanced, I guess? Like, I feel so much more confident, so much more complete when I’m with him. Is that normal? Am I supposed to feel like this?”

Pansy sighed. “How would I know? ‘S not like I’ve ever had a stable relationship.”

Draco frowned. “Aw, Pans. You will one day. We just have to find you that one girl, you know?”

Pansy nodded, despite knowing Draco wasn’t looking at her. “I suppose.”

Draco hummed and tapped his fingers on his thigh, trying to think of a girl for Pansy. “Is there anyone you like?” Draco asked eventually, realizing he and Pansy hadn’t discussed Pansy’s crushes in a while.

“Um,” Pansy said as her mind involuntarily conjured up the image of Granger in the library earlier in the day. “I don’t know. Maybe, but it might just be sexual attraction, so, you know. Probably not girlfriend material.”

Draco was about to respond to this when Tracey Davis came in through the door. She was the only other Slytherin girl to come back to Hogwarts for eighth year, and thus she was the only one who Pansy shared the dorm with. Tracey wasn’t all that bad of a roommate, but she was kind of a prude (Pansy meant that in the nicest way possible), and at times Pansy and her friends were a little too crass and wild for Tracey’s liking. 

“Oh,” Tracey said when she saw that Pansy and Draco were in the room, blushing noticeably when she saw Draco in particular. Oh, there was that, too. Another reason Pansy and Tracey didn’t always get along was because of Tracey’s massive crush on Draco, which had seemingly only developed because Tracey saw Draco as a bad boy, one that she wanted to ‘fix’. No matter how many times Pansy told Tracey that Draco was unwaveringly, outrageously gay, Tracey never gave up her dream of being the one to redeem Draco Malfoy. It made Pansy nauseous, but there wasn’t much she could do to change Tracey’s mind. “I didn’t realize you’d be here this early. It’s Saturday, you’re usually out.”

Pansy shrugged. “Herbology. Sprout’s being a bitch about markings this year.”

Tracey’s eyes widened upon hearing Pansy call Sprout a bitch, but she nodded and headed to her bed without commenting on it. 

“What’re you doing here, Draco?” Tracey asked. Her back was turned towards the other two as she was putting away her book bag.

Draco sat up on the bed and looked at Pansy with a surprised expression. Tracey hardly ever drew up the courage to speak to Draco directly. Pansy shrugged and nodded for him to answer her question.

“I’m just having a girls’ night with Pansy. You know how it is, painting nails, talking about boys, and all that.” 

Pansy covered her mouth to keep herself from laughing at Draco’s reply. It was sure to provoke Tracey. Draco smirked when he saw Pansy fighting off a laugh.  Tracey turned around to face the two of them again, and they both forced their expressions to return to neutral.

“How nice. Has Pansy decided to give men another try?”   
Pansy snorted outright at that. “Never.”

Tracey frowned. Apparently she’d been hoping for a different answer. 

“See, what I really meant was that I was the one who was talking about boys. Pansy was listening and trying not to vomit,” Draco explained.

Pansy nodded. “Indeed. Draco can be rather sickening, you know, when he’s waxing poetic about a crush.”

Tracey’s eyes flew to Draco and she raised her eyebrows. “I didn’t know you were the poetic type, Draco,” Tracey said, sounding surprised. Apparently poetry didn’t fit in with the bad boy archetype that she perceived Draco as.

Draco shook his head vehemently at Tracey’s words. “I’m not. I’m really, really not. I don’t wax poetic, I gush about boys’ eyelashes and Pansy is such an idiot that she just thinks it’s all sonnets.”

Pansy scoffed, offended, and Tracey looked calculating, probably trying to find a response that would endear her Draco.  

“If you ever did write something, Draco, I’d read it,” Tracey said with a smile. She fluttered her own eyelashes exaggeratedly at Draco in a desperate attempt to make him notice them.

Draco smiled back at her halfheartedly, then pulled himself off of Pansy’s bed. “I should go now,” he told Pansy. He made his way to her chair, leaned down to kiss her on the cheek, then whispered in her ear, “Promise me you won’t let the crazy girl try to smell my shampoo on your bedspread.”

Pansy laughed. “I promise.”

Once Draco had left, Tracey turned her attention to Pansy.

“I think he’s starting to like me,” Tracey said, pleased, and Pansy rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, he could hardly keep his hands off of you.” Pansy snorted when Tracey’s expression turned outraged. 

“I don’t know why I even bother trying with you,” Tracey said. “I’ll be ignoring you for the rest of the night.”

“Good,” Pansy mumbled. Now that she would be blissfully free of Tracey’s whines, she could go back to thinking of Granger. 

Pansy found herself thinking of Granger again two days later at lunch. She was at the Slytherin table, with Blaise and Theo being grossly affectionate across from her, and Draco being disgustingly sweet about Harry next to her. She found solace watching Granger from across the Great Hall, until, that is, she got caught.

“Pans, you haven’t even been listening to me,” Draco said accusingly. His words were accompanied by a pinch to Pansy’s arm.

Pansy scowled and momentarily turned her head so she could glare at Draco. “Um, yeah, obviously I’m not listening to you. You’ve been saying all the same stuff for hours. I get it, okay? You and Potter held hands yesterday. Potter lent you his jumper last night. You returned it to him this morning and snogged him. It’s all very nice, Draco, but I can only hear so much before I get depressed about my own love life.”

Draco pouted. “But Pansyyyy,” he said. “I need your advice. Should I ask him to Hogsmeade this weekend?”

“Yes. Do it. If you don’t, I’ll do it for you,” Pansy stated bluntly. “The sooner you two become an official couple, the sooner you’ll be out of my hair.”

“Well,” Blaise butted in. “Not necessarily. Theo and I are official and we still find ourselves in your hair all the time.”

“Just because I’m the only person who tolerates you anymore. I’m sure that Gryffindor is full of tolerant people who Harry and Draco can bother instead of me.”

“Heyyy,” Theo protested. “People like us. Callum likes us, don’t you, Cal?” Theo asked Callum Harper, a seventh year Slytherin who was a little farther down the table, eating a sandwich and nodding along to a story being told to him by another Slytherin in his year. Harper turned his head to look at Theo, Blaise, Pansy, and Draco, and without even pausing in eating his sandwich, he flipped them all off collectively. Theo frowned. “Okay, maybe not.”

“Aw, baby,” Blaise said, patting his boyfriend on the shoulder comfortingly. “Don’t be sad. Harper doesn’t really hate us, he’s still just pissy about Draco dumping him.”

“That was two years ago!” Draco squawked. (He should really work on that. People will start thinking he’s a Fwooper with all the squawking he does.) He took a chip off his plate and threw it at Blaise, who irritatingly caught it in his mouth with ease.

“Poor Harper,” Pansy said, picking up on the fact that Draco was annoyed by this topic of conversation. “He never had a chance with you- you’ve always been too gone on Harry Potter.”

Draco rolled his eyes, but his blush gave him away. “Whatever.”

“Pansy’s right though, you know,” Theo said.

“That Harper never had a chance? Yeah, duh. Besides the fact that Draco’s got an obvious hard-on for the Golden Boy, Harper is an enormous twat,” Blaise said, perhaps a little bit too loudly. Harper looked back at their group again, armed with a death glare, and Blaise waved back at him with a sarcastic smile.

Theo shook his head. “No, I meant Pansy is right that Draco should ask out Potter. He’s been pining for him for ages.”

“Oh, true,” Blaise agreed. “They should just fuck and get it over with so we don’t have to hear about Draco’s pathetic yearning anymore.”

Pansy and Theo nodded in concurrence with Blaise’s statement while Draco stared at them in disbelief.

“Are you serious?” Draco said. “I’m sitting right here.”

“Yeah, but you should be sitting at the Gryffindor table, snuggling up to Potter and telling him how much you’d love to lick his precious abs,” Blaise told him.

“Who says I haven’t already licked his precious abs?” Draco said, giving Blaise a challenging look. While Theo and Blaise raised their eyebrows at Draco, Pansy tugged on his sleeve.

“Wait, Draco,” she said. She was looking over at an empty spot at the Gryffindor table.

“What?”

“They’re gone.”

“Who’s gone?”

“Them. Granger. Granger and Potter, I mean,” Pansy explained, gesturing to where Potter and Granger had been sitting a few moments ago.

“Oh. Where’d he go?” 

Both Pansy and Draco started frantically searching the Great Hall with their eyes while Blaise snorted at them. He was the only one who’d noticed Granger and Harry walking right up to where they were sitting at the Slytherin Table. It wasn’t until the two Gryffindors had come to a stand still and Harry cleared his throat that Pansy and Draco realized where they’d gone. Draco’s gaze immediately flew to Harry, and he gave him as subtle of a once-over as possible before making eye contact and smiling nervously. Pansy, however, was not at all subtle in the way that she checked out Granger, making Granger blush and look down at the ground.

“Hi, Draco,” Harry said. The warmth and sweetness in his voice made Pansy want to gag and made Draco feel like he could melt into a puddle.

“Hey, Scarhead,” Draco said, his own voice oozing affection and fondness. Pansy actually fake gagged at that, and Blaise and Theo chuckled while Granger scowled.

“Is this seat taken?” Harry asked, pointing next to Draco.

“Yes,” Draco replied eagerly. “Uh, no. I meant no,” he backtracked. “Um, please sit,” he said finally, ignoring how his friends were laughing at him. 

Harry smiled as he took the seat, sitting much closer to Draco than he really had to. Granger looked a bit lost standing on her own, so Pansy waved her over.

“There’s a free seat next to me, Granger,” she beckoned.

Granger seemed reluctant, but she still sat down next to Pansy. She stared down at the table while Pansy stared at her. 

“I’m here for emotional support. For Harry,” Granger told Pansy.

Pansy hummed in interest. “Really? I find that hard to believe, since you practically attacked me in the library the other day for even suggesting that there was something genuine between Draco and Harry.”

“Well, I was wrong.”

Pansy gasped. “What? No. I don’t believe it. If Hermione Granger has been wrong about something then my whole life is a lie.”

“Shut up,” Granger said, but there was no bite behind it. “It does happen occasionally.”

Pansy smiled in a satisfied manner. “So you believe me about the poetry now?”

Granger shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. But I still don’t believe you about…” she trailed off.

“About what?” 

At last, Granger looked up from the table to make eye contact with Pansy. Pansy was a bit taken aback by the intensity of Granger’s gaze.

“You’re not attracted to me,” Granger said forcefully, as if she was willing it to be the truth.

Pansy’s lips turned up into a sly smile. “Sure I am, darling.”

Granger shook her head. “No, you’re not.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you can’t be. I mean, you’re…” Granger struggled to find a word. “... you,” Granger settled on. “And I’m me. So it just doesn’t make sense.”

“We already established that in the library, Granger. Tell me something I don’t already know.”

“You’re a minx. Not really my type, okay?” Granger said.    
Pansy furrowed her brow. “But you are into girls, aren’t you?”   
“Well, I’m not-” Granger looked extremely flustered. “That’s not rele- I mean, okay. Fine. Yes. I like girls, but you’re not a normal girl.”

Pansy tilted her head as she considered this. “Shouldn’t that be a good thing?”   
“Maybe, but not in your case. In your case, you’re not a normal girl because you’re some sort of girl-demon-snake hybrid.”

“You know, I’ve always heard that girl-demon-snake hybrids are a really good time in bed,” Pansy reasoned.

Despite her best efforts, Granger smiled at that. Pansy wanted to bask in the moment, but Harry ruined it when he stood up and clapped his hands.

“Okay, Hermione, we have to get to Charms. Let’s go,” Harry said.

“Right,” Hermione said. Before she got up, she told Pansy, “I’m serious though, Pansy. You’ve got to knock it off.”

Pansy simply smirked in response.

“What?” Granger asked.

“You called me Pansy, Hermione,” Pansy said delightedly. 

Granger’s face flushed and she quickly left the table before Pansy could tease her about it more.

Pansy was still quite pleased when she turned back to her friends, and it seemed Draco was too, as his head was on the table and he was smiling dreamily, the way someone only looks if they’re in love or high off of Liquid Luck.

“Blimey, Pans, you missed it,” Blaise said. “Potter beat Draco to it and asked him to Hogsmeade this weekend.”

“What? No way. That’s great, Draco, congrats.” Pansy nudged Draco’s shoulder encouragingly.

“I know,” Draco said, and yep, he was definitely in love. Not even people on Liquid Luck sound that happy. “And he kissed me goodbye. Like a proper boyfriend. I’m suffocating on my happiness right now. It’s fine, though, leave me to die. I’ve accomplished everything I’ve wanted to in life.”

“Don’t say that. You still haven’t actually gone on the date with him, you half wit,” Pansy reminded him.

“Oh, right. Leave me to die on Saturday then.”

Pansy was rolling her eyes at Draco when Theo suddenly asked, “So what was all that with Granger, Pansy?”

“That was nothing. Just a bit of banter.”

“Banter? Is banter usually chock-full of sexual tension?” Blaise said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, actually, it is. But don’t you worry your pretty little mind about that. I’ll have it all resolved by the time Draco’s dead from his love for Potter.”

  
  



End file.
